PrEP means Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, and it’s the use of anti-HIV medications to keep HIV negative people from becoming infected. PrEP is approved by the FDA and has been shown to be safe and effective at preventing HIV infection.

Even though PrEP has been around in the U.S. since 2012, a lot of people still are looking to learn about it. And, even fewer people feel like they know enough about it to be able to make an informed decision about whether or not to use it. For people using PrEP, you can’t really feel or see PrEP working when you use it- so it can help to have a mental picture of what is happening each time you take a dose.

This video was made to provide an illustration of HIV infection and how PrEP generally works to prevent it, and why “once a day” dosing is recommended.

Talk to a provider or go to one of the websites listed here to learn more.

Please note that for women considering PrEP, current evidence suggests that maximum protection can be achieved after about 3 weeks of being on PrEP.

This video and What is PrEP? is brought to you by the PrEP REP project, led by K Rivet Amico, University of Michigan, and Sybil Hosek, Stroger Hospital of Cook County Chicago, in collaboration with Chris Balthazar, Stroger Hospital. Animation by Tom Coggia.

This project was supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Gilead Sciences, Inc. The content and views expressed in this video are those of the presenters and do not necessarily represent the views, opinions or positions of and should not be attributed to the funder for the PrEP REP project or affiliated institutions.

This work is free to be shared, distributed or transmitted. It may not be altered or transformed without permission under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.